Posts by Mickey mouse

29397 · 2011-10-01T23:00:00Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-gilmour/jehovahs-witnesses-and-ac_b_987545.html

Excerpt (bold added):

Intrigued by this gap in the scholarly conversation about contemporary uses of the Bible, I recently proposed an SBL session examining the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society's use of Scripture. I received approval to proceed but then dropped the ball before getting too far along and circulating a call for papers. Here's why. Though there are good reasons for scholars to engage this Bible reading community in a context like SBL, I wonder whether it is a responsible or even ethical thing to do if members of the organization are not part of the conversation. Said differently, is it appropriate for outsiders to put a religious tradition under the microscope without insider representation?

The difference between the Jehovah's Witnesses and other contemporary reading communities examined at SBL is participation. Sessions treating other religious perspectives on biblical literature - such as the Latter-day Saints and the Bible section - enjoy active participation by adherents. To illustrate, scholars from Brigham Young University are active in this group. It seems unlikely this would occur in prospective sessions on the Jehovah's Witnesses. Indeed, the Watchtower views biblical scholarship with profound distrust so the very idea of a conversation about their hermeneutics at SBL is problematic. Their 1988 commentary Revelation: Its Grand Climax at Hand!, for instance, repeats suspicions about the integrity or acumen of biblical scholarship, referring with disdain to "Worldly commentators" who offer alternative readings of Revelation (120 and passim). And there's the rub. Can we have a substantial, respectful, constructive conversation about this group - or any other religious community - if there are no insiders, no representatives of the tradition involved?

29397 · 2011-10-01T20:38:00Z

Yes, their more extremist cousins the Exclusive Brethren are similar to JWs in lots of ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlNUeAbzlDw

29397 · 2011-10-01T19:55:00Z

THE official magazine of the Jehovah's Witnesses - the church best known for its doorknocking to gain recruits - has described those who quit the religion as "mentally diseased".

A members-only version of the Watchtower magazine, which states official church doctrine, describes defectors from the religion as apostates and likens them to someone infected with a "contagious, deadly disease ... who seeks to infect others".

The magazine instructs Jehovah's Witnesses to avoid greeting or speaking to anyone who has left the religion so they cannot be "deceived" by them.

It also tells them they should never watch a TV show or visit websites that highlight "fabricated" criticism of the religion and reinforces a directive that parents should shun children who are expelled from or quit the religion.

The religion's tactic of "disfellowshipping" and shunning those who quit the religion or dispute official church teachings will come under scrutiny at a national conference in Canberra next month that aims to alert lawmakers to the need for tougher laws to protect vulnerable people from controlling religions.

John McAlpin, a spokesman for the Cult Information and Family Support group, said high-control religions commonly used the threat of being banished and shunned by family and friends to maintain a grip on members and silence criticism.

"Cults recruit people who think this is the next big thing in their life, but the mind control they employ is insidious," he said.

"Once they're in, people are not allowed to think for themselves and they lose control of their lives.

"They're convinced that they will be the only ones who will survive the destruction of the world, that theirs is the one true religion and are threatened that if they leave the cult they will lose their family."

The seminar will be co-hosted by independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who has raised concerns in Parliament about Scientology and the Exclusive Brethren in the past.

Figures from Jehovah's Witnesses show that they have 65,000 active door-to-door preachers in Australia and that more than 1200 were baptised as members last year.

A major sociological study of the religion by English researcher Andrew Holden found that devotees were urged to limit their contact with the outside world and typically ended up with a social circle consisting only of other Jehovah's Witnesses.

This, the study found, added to their trauma if they wished to leave.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/jehovas-witnesses-defectors-cop-a-blast/story-fn7x8me2-1226155212128

29397 · 2011-10-01T19:49:00Z

Did you see this?

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/social/current/216573/1/Australia-Newspaper-alerts-JWs-likens-defectors-to-contagious-deadly-disease

29397 · 2011-10-01T19:46:00Z

Will do cedars, thanks (and to you fokyc).

29397 · 2011-10-01T19:31:00Z